Christian Jouanin (; 1925 – 8 November 2014) was a prominent French

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and expert on

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes. Description Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...

s. He worked for the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and is a former Vice President of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

. He has done many major projects in the field, notably with petrels in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

and Madeiras, and has described a number of species. Jouanin began working professionally with birds in 1940 at the age of 15, when he started working for the

under the tutelage of

Jacques Berlioz Jacques Berlioz (9 December 1891, Paris – 21 December 1975) was a French zoologist and ornithologist, specializing in hummingbirds. He was a grand-nephew of composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869). Berlioz was born in Paris, where the family hom ...

, then the head of the ornithology department. At the age of 22 he married his wife, Nicole, with whom he has had two daughters. While working at the museum he, along with his colleague

Jean Dorst Jean Dorst (7 August 1924 – 8 August 2001) was a French ornithologist. Dorst was born at Mulhouse and studied biology and paleontology at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Paris. In 1947 he joined the staff of the Muséum ...

, who later replaced Berlioz as the head of the ornithology department, helped write the species description for the Djibouti spurfowl, a

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

spurfowl Spurfowl are two genera of birds: * ''Galloperdix'', from India and Sri Lanka * ''Pternistis ''Pternistis'' is a genus of galliform birds formerly classified in the spurfowl group of the partridge subfamily of the pheasant family. They are ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

whose type specimen was brought to the museum. He also developed a lifelong interest in two distinctly different bird families, the

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s and the

In 1955 Jouanin published his first independent species description after realizing that the new species, named

Jouanin's petrel Jouanin's petrel (''Bulweria fallax'') is a species of seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is found throughout the northwestern Indian Ocean. Its natural habitats are open seas and shallow seas. It has been recorded breeding on Socotra ...

, differed significantly from the Mascarene petrel. This description began a long period of his life dedicated to the research of petrels in the

. While his primary goal was to find the breeding grounds of the Mascarene petrel, he discovered another new species,

Barau's petrel Barau's petrel (''Pterodroma baraui'') is a medium-sized gadfly petrel from the family Procellariidae. Its main breeding site is the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Etymology The name commemorates Armand Barau, an agricultural engineer a ...

, breeding on the island of

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

. He also analyzed the differences between the

and

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

populations of

tropical shearwater The tropical shearwater (''Puffinus bailloni'') is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly considered conspecific with Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri''). Subspecies There are five listed subspecies of the tropical shearwa ...

. In 1963 he switched his focus to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, participating with Francis Roux in an expedition to the

Savage Islands The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands ( ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portugal, Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira and north of the Canary Islands.30,000), white-faced storm-petrel (>80,0 ...

. He then proceeded to study

Cory's shearwater Cory's shearwater (''Calonectris borealis'') is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It breeds colonially on the archipelago of the Azores in the eastern Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely in the Atlantic. ...

in the Madeiras with Alec Zino, a collaboration that has resulted in over eighty publications. Jouanin is recognized as an expert on the Order

Procellariiformes Procellariiformes is an order (biology), order of seabirds that comprises four family (biology), families: the albatrosses, the Procellariidae, petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still call ...

and co-wrote the section on those birds in

James Lee Peters James Lee Peters (August 13, 1889 – April 19, 1952) was an American ornithologist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Dr. Austin Peters and Francis Howie Lee on August 13, 1889. His early education was at the Roxbury Latin School, followed ...

's Check-list of Birds of the World. He served as the Vice President of the

from 1970 to 1975 and has been a member of the

International Ornithological Congress International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

since 1954, serving on the Permanent Executive Committee from 1970 to 1978. He organized the exhibition ″L'Impératice Joséphine et les Sciences Naturelles″ presented at the National Museum of Château de Malmaison and Bois-Préau in Paris Rueil-Malmaison: 26 May - 6 October 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jouanin, Christian French ornithologists 1925 births 2014 deaths People associated with the International Union for Conservation of Nature 20th-century French zoologists 21st-century French scientists 21st-century French zoologists National Museum of Natural History (France) people